Visual Arts and Film Studies - Research Paper Example

With the hope that you would be doing well, I have visited the City of New York from where the Painting Do the Dance was made by Elizabeth Murray in 2005- a contemporary piece of art signifying life in the city of New York- The city of New York, with all its might, is one of the most famous cities of the world- is known for its fast-paced life. It is said that the intensity of competition is greatest in this part of the world where everyone is working hard for survival. I wanted to visit this city to see this myself and whether I will be able to stand the challenges of this city.

The painting is an exact mirror image of this city. It shows a jumbled-up maze with roads and ladders.The city has tall and huge buildings and rich architectural history. The weather of New York is sub-tropical, and both winters and summers are quite different. Summers being sunny, humid, and warm while winters being cold and moist because of rain. Moreover, New York is the center for many activities related to media such as television, music, print media, films, and advertising.This amazing piece of art as described by the author as a ‘construction’ rather than just a painting shows a process of building and growing.

It is classified as a painting using oil paints on a wood canvas, bright colors with a view that makes it look like separate pieces joined together to portray the process of uncanny structures used to show life in this city. The dimensions of this work are 9' 5" x 11' 3" x 1 ½ and light makes it look brighter.The period in which the painting was made is the CONTEMPORAY period, and the style of the painting is also contemporary, showing the current state of the city. The style flourished since after World War 2 and continues till today.

EXPRESSIONISM is prominent in paintings of this era that originated in Germany.The artwork consists of objects like a jumbled-up maze, an overturned bottle, faces, ladders, and roads. It gives a highly 3-dimensional effect with bright oil paints and striking colors that make it very interesting. The highly jumbled-up picture with bright colors portrays exactly what the city is all about. The Artist Elizabeth Murray was an American who was born in 1940 and died in 2007. She completed her education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1962.

She completed her Master of Fine Arts from Mills College in 1964. In 1998, she got selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. New York Times described her work as ‘’You're left with the sense of an artist in the flush of her authority and still digging deep."There were many other artists doing similar work at this time including Gerrard Richter and Gabriel Orozco. Their works also form part of contemporary work but their works usually reflect a single phenomenon such as what they wanted the world to be instead of what it actually was.

Whereas, the painting chosen for this assignment shows what was presently going on and expected in the city in near future.Another work found to be interesting was named Maya's Dream by Franz West. It portrays the complexity and attractiveness of scenic beauty whereas Do the Dance had colors that attract along with a 3D effect and looked more interesting.This Painting is placed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The good thing was that it was made in New York and is still placed there so it was a good idea to go there and see it.

I did not waste my money as I had taken all relevant information online to travel to New York.